Chris Kennedy in Gubernatorial campaign websites
On Budget & Economy:
Invest in economic incubators; create jobs for our kids
If we invest in economic incubators, we can keep our children close to home. They will not need to leave our state to find jobs, they will not be forced to leave their families to seek work, they can stay in the towns they grew up in,
and they can rely on their parents and uncles and aunts to help raise their children and pass on the values that they learned there as well. Governor Rauner's cuts to these incubators are destroying our ability to create jobs in the future,
which is critical to restoring the American Dream in our state. Rauner and his Republican allies fooled us once in 2014, and shame on them. Let's not let the Republicans get away with fooling us again in this year's election.
He's cut off funding for tourism agencies and convention bureaus, shrinking our economy as he does so. He has gutted funding for higher education and economic incubators all around the state."
Source: 2018 Gubernatorial campaign website, KennedyForIllinois.com
Jan 31, 2017
On Corporations:
Celebrate family businesses, not consolidation & conformity
Family businesses are under a lot of pressure these days. Consolidation has probably been the single most important economic trend of the last two decades. Half of the entire United States fast food industry is controlled by just six companies.
Consolidation is affecting financial institutions, and it is affecting retail, manufacturing, and large-scale corporate mergers and acquisitions as well. But the real estate and construction industries are the bulwark against these massive trends of
consolidation and conformity. You are the spearhead of individuality and one of the only things keeping our cities and our country from subsuming to the effects of robotic leadership and generic branding offered by big-box retailers or the
oppressive limitations in our choices, forced upon us by enormous corporate entities. The challenges we face from consolidation make it even more imperative that we pause to celebrate the successes of family businesses that keep our city so unique."
Source: 2018 Gubernatorial campaign website, KennedyForIllinois.com
Jan 31, 2017
On Education:
Need-based scholarships is educational justice
Education Justice: The university systems still greatly favor wealthy, high-achieving students. We know that the high-achieving students are almost always from wealthy families. Universities that used to provide scholarship money that was need-based
are now reallocating it to merit-based scholarship in an effort to buy in the students with the best high school GPAs and highest ACT or SAT scores in order to move up the ranks. We are, in effect, recirculating these charitable dollars among the
rich because we know that high-achieving high school students are almost always from wealthy families.
We are removing one more device that provided access between the lower economic quintiles and the upper quintiles by limiting scholarship
dollars that are need-based. This educational achievement gap creates a structural barrier to success, amplifying challenges to the poor and violating the tenants of the American ideal.
Source: 2018 Gubernatorial campaign website, KennedyForIllinois.com
Jan 31, 2017
On Education:
Poor-rich mobility begins early in school
The core of the mobility issue begins early on. Poor kids don't have access to schools that are as good as the schools in wealthy neighborhoods. The rich live near the rich and the poor live near the poor. As a result, the poor have no access
to the tax base that funds the school systems that the rich kids go to. Bruce Rauner makes a bad situation worse. He's going to further isolate the poor and leave them limited access to the benefits of living in the wealthiest country in the world.
Source: 2018 Gubernatorial campaign website, KennedyForIllinois.com
Jan 31, 2017
On Foreign Policy:
Borrow the best ideas from around the world
We are living in global times; we can borrow ideas from our neighbors across the world. We have the mantle of leadership, and it is our duty to continue the idea of the Great American Experiment--the notion that we can create a better city
and state by adopting the best ideas from every country around the world. The world continues to look to us, and we have a chance to show them the way by simply embracing their best ideas.
Source: 2018 Gubernatorial campaign website, KennedyForIllinois.com
Jan 31, 2017
On Health Care:
Treat the mentally ill instead of jailing them
We live in a country where there are 10 million people with schizophrenia and bipolar and major depression, often which cause substantial impairment, and something like 40% of them receive no treatment in a given year. We moved the seriously affected
out of psychiatric hospitals where, in the 50s, we had 330 beds or more per 100,000 people, and today, we only have 11 or 12 beds per 100,000 people in our country to serve these people. Our largest overnight facility for people with mental illness is
now our jail system and our prisons, where a huge percentage of inmates have untreated mental illness. We've arranged for our largest insurer of this population, Medicaid, to reimburse psychiatrists in a way that is
so unrewarding that now many of these medical professionals won't accept Medicaid or care for these patients as a result of this government policy. We as a country are not acting rationally.
Source: 2018 Gubernatorial campaign website, KennedyForIllinois.com
Jan 31, 2017
On Health Care:
Don't punish the hospitals; don't divide them from doctors
The last gubernatorial election was divisive for the healthcare field. The lobbyists who traditionally represented doctors seemed to favor Bruce Rauner, and lobbyists who traditionally represented hospitals seemed to support Pat Quinn. The governor's
office created budget documents that will, in effect, disproportionally punish hospitals, including small safety-net hospitals. I can tell you that, if the small safety net hospitals like Mt. Sinai, fail, their patient load will overwhelm the capacity
to absorb them at the University of Illinois hospital, and this will threaten the very existence of our state hospital and the power of our medical school and perhaps threaten the economic viability of the entire University itself. Northwestern,
Loyola and U of C and many other regional hospitals will face the same fate. We cannot let revenge politics destroy social service networks and some of the greatest healthcare economic engines the state has.
Source: 2018 Gubernatorial campaign website, KennedyForIllinois.com
Jan 31, 2017
On Jobs:
Pro-business AND pro-labor; ran all-union shop
I know first-hand that it is possible to be pro-business and pro-labor. I believe that partnering with union labor provides a competitive advantage. I believe this because it has been my experience during my entire work life.With an all-union shop,
we competed with and beat out non-union businesses around the country. Day-in and day-out, the frontline union staff provided our clients better customer service, and a commitment to excellence that clients could not get anywhere else.
Source: 2018 Gubernatorial campaign website, KennedyForIllinois.com
Jan 31, 2017
Page last updated: Dec 01, 2021